If you have livestock in Benue State, this is a good time to put them in or take them out of the state.Â
The Open Grazing Prohibition and Ranches Establishment Law of 2017 enforcement agency, the Livestock Guards, has had its operations suspended for a two-week period by the Benue State Government to allow all herdsmen with livestock inside Benue territory to leave.
Governor Samuel Ortom made this announcement at the conclusion of the state security council meeting after more than 130 people were killed in a single week.
The action is intended to grant good fate to everyone who claimed to have entered the state unaware that there was a ban against open grazing.
Additionally, he stated that the Benue state security agencies have confirmed receiving President Muhammadu Buhari’s directive to find those responsible for the state-wide mass killings.
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He urged the security agencies to move swiftly to fulfill this duty so that the victims of the attack can receive some measure of justice.
Killings In Benue
Gunmen had attacked residents of different communities in the north central Nigeria state, resulting in at least 74 fatalities.Â
After that attack 28 dead bodies were found at a camp for internally displaced people in the Mgban local government area between Friday night and Saturday morning, according to Catherine Anene, a spokesperson for the Benue State Police.
The attack came after a separate incident in the same state on Wednesday, April 5, when suspected herders slaughtered locals during a funeral in the rural Umogidi hamlet of Otukpo local government area, according to Bako Eje, the chairman of Otukpo.
Increasing population growth has caused the land utilised for cultivation to be expanded, leaving less space available for nomads’ cattle herds to graze in the open.
This situation has been greeted with increased violence in the region.
Benue is one of Nigeria’s Middle Belt states, where the majority Muslim north meet the predominantly Christian south.
In the Middle Belt fault lines between farmers and herders frequently coincide with racial and religious conflicts.
The competition over land use is particularly intractable.
